Dr Jessica Meade

BioMy background is in animal behaviour and behavioural ecology. My PhD at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Professor Tim Guilfordinvolved the use of miniaturized GPS trackers to investigate short distance navigation in homing pigeons. Following my PhD I spent several field seasons working on Skomer Island with Prof. Guilford tracking Manx shearwaters, and with Professor Tim Birkhead working on the population dynamics of common guillemots. I went on to do a Post-Doc with Professor Ben Hatchwell at the University of Sheffield investigating parental and alloparental care in the cooperatively breeding long-tailed tit. In 2012 I moved to Australia to work with A/Professor Tracey Rogers at UNSW on satellite tracked leopard seals. After this I worked part-time as the assistant behavioural biologist at Taronga Conservation Society, and part-time at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment (HIE) modelling the effect of extreme events on vertebrates in the Australian Wet Tropics, before moving to HIE full time in February 2017.

ResearchI am an animal ecologist with a particular interest in animal behaviour, navigation and spatial ecology. My previous research has been varied and falls into three main categories. Navigation, involving a combination of high resolution tracking and experimental manipulation to investigate the sensory basis of navigation. Spatial ecology, identifying natural patterns of movement including foraging and migration. Cooperative breeding, examining parental investment and helping behaviour. I am currently working on the movement ecology of grey-headed flying foxes, as part of an ARC Discovery project.